Google introduces new Developer Center and SDKs at Smart Home Developer Summit, clarifies GMS requirement for Matter support

Smart homes are the future, and the future is inching closer with every passing day. Earlier this year at Google I/O, Google had announced Matter, a universal standard for smart home devices to encourage interoperability and seamless co-existence between them. Several internet giants like Google, Amazon, Apple, and Samsung have worked together on Matter, and Matter is also supported by both Android and Google Nest devices. Today, at the Smart Home Developer Summit, Google has announced several resources in the form of the Google Home Developer Center, the new Google Home Device SDK for Matter, and the new Google Home Mobile SDK. Google is also expanding its Google Home branding and introducing Suggested Routines to developers.

Google Home Developer Center

Google wants to become the best place for smart home developers to build, innovate, and grow. In the quest towards that goal, Google has announced the new Google Home Developer Center. Launching early next year, this resource center will host everything needed to learn and build smart home devices, applications, and automations with Google. It is a total redesign of the developer site and console, and now with self-serve tools for both developers and business teams.

The developer center will have tools for development, deployment, and analytics, including:

• Building Matter devices
• Customizing setup of your devices in Android and the Google Home app
• Creating automations and routines
• Building Android apps with Matter
• Testing and certification
• New tools for analytics & performance monitoring

The idea behind the new Google Home Developer Center is to become a one-stop-shop for interested developers to learn and develop for Google Home and for Matter.

New Google Home Device SDK for Matter devices

To develop Matter devices, Google is releasing the Google Home Device SDK. This SDK will be the fastest way to develop Matter devices, and they will enable seamless setup, control, and interoperability.

The Matter specification is open-source, and the accompanying Matter SDK ensures everyone building for Matter is starting from the same code base. But if you want devices to work seamlessly with Google, be configured through Assistant, and want tools to interact and test with Google devices, then this new Google Home Device SDK will be useful.

To make development even easier, Google will also be delivering the Google Home IDE to build smart home devices and connect them to Google in a familiar way.

For developers using Visual Studio Code to develop smart home devices, they can easily leverage these tools in that environment by installing the new Google Home IDE, which complements existing extensions and tools in the popular editor.

Android Support via Google Play Services and a new Google Home Mobile SDK

Google has also shared more details on Matter’s support within Android.

Mobile devices are an important smart home tool for users, and are critical to how users set up, manage, and control the devices in their home. To make app experiences more seamless, and help your users experience the magic of your device as quickly as possible, we’re building Matter directly into Android, and announcing support for Matter through Google Play services.

While their previous announcement mentioned that Android will be getting support, this announcement clarifies that support will be delivered via Google Play Services. The wording is a little vague, and we reached out for clarification, and Google clarified that it indeed remains restricted to Google Play Services. This announcement means that Android as a platform (AOSP) will not be getting support, and only devices with GMS and Google Play Services by extension will support Matter devices.

Google does go on to mention benefits of the move. For developers working on Matter devices, the setup flow will be seamless, letting users connect new Matter devices over WiFi as easily as a new pair of headphones. Developers will also be able to customize the setup flow with branding and device descriptions. Users will also be able to link devices with the developers’ app, the Google Home apps, and other Matter apps that are installed on their device. Further, the Matter device will also show up on Android controls for smart home devices, and will be controllable with the Google Assistant on Android without additional development.

To facilitate the above, the new Google Home Mobile SDK will help accelerate development with the Google Play Services Matter APIs.

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